Nautical Tales and Ninjutsu
by Anderling
Summary: In a world where Pirates and Ninjas have fought a bitter war for centuries, the new Pirate Queen, Kairi, was to be crowned while the Ninjas' second-in-command Riku was to assassinate her before that could happen. If only it were that simple...
1. Prologue: Everyone Knows

**This one is entirely the fault of lightning_hope on LJ. She mentioned writing a fic with pirate!Kairi and we talked bout it for a bit. A few days later, I made a joke regarding a "ninja-crossover" (as in, secretly a crossover without anyone knowing) and LH mentioned that that gave her a plotbunny about a ninja-fic. After turning the idea over for a second, the plotbunny bit me too, and I jokingly wrote a summary of Pirate Kairi versus Ninja Riku... only to end up actually writing it. Whoops. Anywho, here it is. I'll try to keep the fic alive, but I'm a procastinatorpants and in college, so I'm making no promises on a schedule.  
><strong>**Rating: T for violence. May go up later.  
><strong>**Warnings: AU, one yaoi-pairing (later on), character death (later on), drama llama's (later on).  
><strong>**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix and Disney do.  
><strong>**Caveat lector!**

* * *

><p><em><strong>Prologue<strong>_** -**_**Everyone Knows...  
><strong>_The sun had risen above the horizon at last.

At the sight of it, some of the younger men huddled around the fire relaxed visibly. Their seniors, on the other hand, did not – they had seen too much to be lulled into a false sense of security by the daylight.

"Lighten up!" one of the newer recruits laughed, smacking another boy on the back. "They won't do anything during the day, everyone knows that! If they do show up, we'll kill 'em. It'll be easy!"

"Really, Stephenson?" came a cold voice from behind the boy. "Would you mind telling me what makes you think that?"

Stephenson's heart started racing at the sound, proving that somewhere deep within, his body, at least, had a sense of self-preservation and was putting its energy into the fight-or-flight response. His brain, however, was slow to catch up. "Well," Stephenson ventured, "everyone knows they attack during twilight or night because there's not much light then, right? So since it's day right now, I thought -" Stephenson fell silent at the captain's glare.

The other boys he'd been talking to a few seconds ago knew a dead man when they saw him and immediately made way for the captain as he walked towards the now-abandoned rookie.

"Yes, that's true. Everyone knows they don't attack during the day," the captain said in a calm, level tone that nevertheless spelled out disaster. "Everyone knows that they attack with dozens of them at once. Everyone knows they use karate moves and shuriken and katana's to kill their prey. However, what everyone knows is _wrong_."

"I – captain Luxord, I -" Stephenson tried, but the captain didn't seem to hear him, or didn't care what he had to say.

"In real life," the captain said, coming to a halt about a foot away from the boy, "they work alone or in very small groups. They'll get close to you, bide their time, win your trust, and then..." Captain Luxord snapped his fingers. "...you're gone, just like that. _If_ you're lucky."

"How do you... know that, sir?" someone else asked, taking pity on poor Stephenson.

Luxord glanced at the person who'd asked – a girl of hardly fifteen years old. Probably joined up just to see some of the world or get away from someone back home. "...my first mate was killed by the Ninjas a few years back," he eventually said, apparently deciding the girl was trustworthy. "The Ninja who did it joined us claiming bandits had killed her husband and left her to die. We should have known better than that. I woke up in the middle of the night to see she just slit his throat and was starting to walk towards me. Naturally I took out my sword and killed her, but it was too late for Wilson." The captain was silent for a moment, apparently lost in thought, before he grabbed his pack from beside where he'd been standing before Stephenson made his comment. "All right, pack up, people. Someone erase any signs that we've been here. Her Majesty will be waiting for us, we've got to get her to the safety of the ship before those bastards get to her. You're Pirates, act like it!"

On the edge of the encampment, a young man with silver hair raised his gaze a fraction of an inch. So the tip had been true after all... The silver-haired boy grinned. _Exactly as planned..._


	2. Chapter 1: The Girl

_**Chapter 1**** - ****The Girl  
><strong>_"You wanted to see me, sir?" Riku asked, bowing.

"Indeed. Sit down, Riku," the leader said, gesturing towards one of the cushions centred around the table. Riku sat on the one directly opposite his superior.

"What was it you wanted to talk to me about?" the silver-haired boy asked as his leader poured him a cup of tea. (Riku made sure he could see the man's hands, though – he was a Ninja and he didn't get to be in charge by being _nice_.)

"Are you aware of the tradition of the Pirate King, Riku?" the man asked, handing the boy his tea.

Something tugged at Riku's memories. "That's the leader of all of the Pirate clans, isn't it? Sorts out arguments and makes sure the code of honor –" that last part was said with a sneer; the idea of a Pirate with any kind of honor whatsoever was downright ridiculous "– is upheld and stuff. Why do you ask, Master Marluxia? Didn't we kill the King a month ago? There's been chaos amongst them ever since because they can't just appoint another one."

"That's true," Marluxia said, nodding. "I must say, Riku, I'm impressed you know so much about the current situation. Especially considering I _distinctly_ recall making sure Zexion didn't tell anyone." The corners of his mouth twitched, though, so Riku relaxed slightly, knowing he wasn't in trouble. "Indeed, we were sure this would be the finishing strike for our enemies since the lineage would die out. It would appear, however, that we were wrong." The pink-haired man sipped his tea, letting the words sink in for a moment, before continuing. "No one ever heard of the great Pirate King Jones fathering a child. No one even knew he had a wife, to be honest. However, in his will, he mentioned a daughter who was raised by her maternal grandmother. He begged for a Captain Luxord to be sent to find her and teach her the ways of the Pirates."

"And that's why you called me, isn't it?" Riku asked, raising an eyebrow. "To find the girl and get rid of her?"

"Your skill at infiltrating a group of people without rousing suspicion is matched only by your ability to kill –" there was a certain relish in the way Marluxia said that word "– your targets, Riku. That is why you're my second-in-command."

Riku nodded. "I'll get ready to leave immediately."

Riku had to admit, the town of Shinkl was the last place the Ninjas would have expected to find the new Pirate Queen.

From what he heard, it existed solely because the people coming down from the mountain needed a place to rest before continuing on to the plains. It had an inn, an old church building that hardly anyone ever used (apparently the farmers went to the next town over for church services and school) and four or five farmers who tried to make the best of it with their families. King Jones had put a lot of thought into where his daughter grew up – the only people who cared about the town were hikers or the villagers themselves. No one would expect the most powerful girl of her generation to live _there_.

The group of Pirates marched on through the forest quietly. Well, in their own way, since it's practically impossible for more than three Pirates together to be quiet. Captain Luxord occasionally yelled at people making too much noise, telling them that the Ninjas might be able to follow them by the sound of their voices, which in turn made Riku have to hide a smile.

When they got close to the village, however, something felt... off. You couldn't quite put your finger on it, but all conversations faltered and stopped.

"The town looks abandoned..." a boy standing next to Riku said in a hushed voice. "They didn't even get the animals in for the night, even though it looks like rain..."

"Why did they leave so suddenly?" the girl from last night (Riku heard from someone her name was Olette) whispered.

"I think I know why," someone else said, sounding queasy.

Riku turned around. The one who'd spoken – a boy who'd introduced himself to everyone as Hayner – was hunched over something lying in the bushes. A slightly closer look revealed what exactly it was he found.

"Something tells me I don't want to know what would make someone leave so suddenly he'd leave half his arm behind," Riku said, making a face. "Maybe the Ninjas found this place?" _I don't remember anyone being sent this way, though. Pity, maybe they could have killed the girl._

"Possibly," captain Luxord muttered, staring at nothing. After a second or so, he focussed on his crew again. "All right, I want every building here searched. This is an emergency," he said. "I want you, you and you –" he pointed at Hayner, Olette and a blonde woman who had apparently carefully styled her hair into two antennae "– to search the houses over there. You three –" he pointed at three of the others "– search the houses over there." Both groups were out of sight within seconds. "Stephenson, Martin, you search the church. As for you," Luxord said, turning to Riku, the last person left, "you're with me. We're going to search the inn."

"Yessir," Riku said, following the captain. _He's scared and confused, so the first step is to spread it around. Human nature is a wonderful thing..._ If she was here, maybe if he got lucky and played his cards right, killing the girl would be easier than expected...

* * *

><p>There were strange people inside. Both of them could hear their footsteps. It's amazing how good your hearing can be when you're really trying because it's a matter of life and death - specifically, which one happened to you after today. It was also amazing how calm and focussed you can be while at the same time a treacherous little voice in the back of your mind whispers, <em>"Today is a good day to die, isn't it?..."<br>_She clutched her makeshift weapon tighter, her knuckles turning white. _No_, she thought firmly, ignoring the fact her heart threatened to burst out of her chest any second now. _Today is a good day for _someone else_ to die_.

* * *

><p>The inn had been searched – it didn't take a genius to figure that much out. Tables had been turned over and tossed aside, cabinets had been opened and their contents flung to the floor when they turned out not to be valuable and there were shards of glass on the floor from broken bottles of liquor (the stench got everywhere). The innkeeper would never have allowed his inn to look like this if he were still alive.<p>

Captain Luxord gestured for Riku to go and search the upper floors. The silver-haired boy nodded and tiptoed up the stairs quietly, looking around when he reached the landing. Let's see… Where could the silly girl be? There were only so many rooms...

...odd. All of the rooms had been searched, from the looks of it. The doors had been slammed wide open... e_xcept_ for the one at the end of the hallway to the right, which was only half-opened. Surely she wouldn't be _that_ stupid?

Riku walked towards the door, careful not to make a sound, unsheathing his sword. Nasty weapons, swords, not a Ninja's weapon of choice at all, but they got the job done...

In one swift movement, Riku slammed the door open. It hit the wall and attempted to bounce back and hit the silver-haired boy. He stopped it with his foot. Any bandit hiding behind the wall in hopes of killing him would have to be flat.

Riku looked around the room. It was plain even for a cheap inn, with nothing whatsoever inside it apart from a bed and a chair. The people who slept here never stayed any longer than they had to.

Riku was about to walk around the room to check if something looked out of place when he felt a blade pressed against his neck.

"Drop that sword right now," someone whispered into his ear.

The thing about Ninjas, the very _odd_ thing about Ninjas, is that while they know exactly how much you're worth dead, they value their own lives quite highly. Riku let the sword fall to the ground.

"Very good," the person said. "Now, give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you like I killed some of your accomplishes."

Ah, that's why she – it was definitely a female voice now that Riku thought about it for a second – was so defensive. She thought the bandits had come back.

"I'm not with them, whoever they were," the silver-haired boy said, trying not to stammer.

"Somehow I doubt that." The girl moved in front of him, taking care to keep her weapon, a meat cleaver apparently taken from the kitchen, pressed against his throat. She was pretty, Riku noted despite himself – dark red hair, piercing violet-blue eyes and the way she carried herself, every part of her body knowing exactly where it was going. Her head tilted slightly to the left as she appraised him. "You don't _look_ like a bad person..." she muttered, her left hand reaching up to brush a strand of hair out of his eyes. She took a step back. "Okay. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that I believe you," she said. "Why _are_ you here if you're not trying to steal the silverware?"

Riku cast a very pointed look at the meat cleaver, which was grudgingly lowered an inch. The silver-haired boy exhaled in relief. "Captain Luxord is here to find a girl," he said. "They say she's the rightful Pirate Queen. Do you know her?"

The redheaded girl smiled and lowered the cleaver. "As a matter of fact, yes." She walked past Riku into the hallway and knocked at a patch of wall exactly like the rest, a complicated knock suggesting that the girl hadn't been entirely unprepared for this kind of situation. "Naminé, they're here," she said. "Come on, we've got to go."

The part of the wall the redheaded girl had knocked on swung open to reveal a hidden cabinet; you had to know it was there to see it. Inside there was a pale blonde girl wearing a white dress. "It's nice to meet you, sir," she spoke softly, climbing out of the hidden cabinet like this was routine. "This," she said, gesturing towards the redhead, "is Kairi. My name is Naminé. Naminé Jones, the girl you were looking for."

Naminé and Kairi... '_kai_' means '_sea_' and '_nami_' means '_ocean wave_', doesn't it? My, how original those Pirates are...

But there she was, the Queen, right in front of him. To think it would be this easy to find her. Riku considered his odds in being able to kill her right now and getting away with it before deciding that the group of Pirates outside would have something to say about that.

Naminé looked delicate and frail, it was true, but she held herself with a certain grace. Probably not the best canidate for the job, but someone who'd try to get it done to the best of her ability. There had been worse royals through the ages. (Riku should know – he'd spent many nights looking through the Ninjas' library reading through the books. Since it was the _Ninjas'_ library, they usually went into a lot of detail on who killed the king or queen in question, how, why and how much the Ninja had been paid.)

And yet there was something slightly off that Riku couldn't quite put his finger on. There was a part of his mind that was telling him he shouldn't take things at face value, that there was more to this than meets the eye...

That was of later concern, though. The silver-haired boy bowed to Naminé, on the basis that courtesy is never out of place. "It's an honor to meet you," he said. "The captain is waiting. Shall we be off?"

* * *

><p>It took a little while to get their merry bunch of men together. The <em>theory<em> was sound; the people who'd been searching the closest would fetch the others, saving time. However, when you've got a bunch of people on edge and they've all got swords in hand, accidents are bound to happen. Olette had been startled by Hayner and lashed out before conscious thought had caught up with her. Thankfully, it had been his left arm as opposed to his sword arm and quite a shallow cut at that, so he waved away her repeated apologies.

Captain Luxord cast a look at the sky, as if he was asking some deity why he had chosen these people to go on such an important mission.

"Now that we're all present, accounted for and in one piece," the captain said, giving them all an exhasperated look, "we march back to Gridosia."

Most of the Pirates started marching, but the boy who'd remarked no one took the animals inside against the rain was standing still, looking at one of the stables. There were two horses there, walking towards the fence in hope of some food. Luxord followed the boy's gaze, seeming to ponder something.

After a few seconds, Luxord said, "Do you know how to handle horses? It would be a shame to leave them here for just _anyone_ to steal."

They had gotten quite a ways into the forest, eager as they were to put the abandoned town behind them. After some argument about the horses and what purpose they were (the antennae-haired woman had said "Lunch", causing some outrage from two other Pirates), it had been decided that they would carry their packs and Queen Naminé. The gray horse had refused to let anyone near it, but it had calmed right down when the girl walked up to it, which some of he others considered a Sign of the girl's Divine Right to Rule.

It had taken some effort on Riku's part not to laugh at that. Did anyone seriously believe in that stuff anymore? And besides, that girl grew up in that town. For all they knew, it had been her horse in the first place.

And then there was the other girl from Shinkl. Kairi, wasn't it? She was walking a few feet in front of him, looking around carefully. Riku followed her gaze a few times, noting that she seemed to be staring at the shadows a few times. It unnerved the silver-haired boy. Pirates weren't _supposed_ to do that, it entirely defied the natural order of things. Ninja's were the ones that lurked in shadows and bided their time and relied on trickery to kill while the Pirates were overall more physically able, relying on speed and strength and defense to save them from the traps the former set for them. They weren't supposed to be using their _brains_.

Kairi looked over her shoulder, eyes meeting Riku's for a second, before looking ahead again, a slight blush coloring her cheeks. Yes, there was definitely something strange about her. That bothered Riku as well – Pirates were, as a rule, simple and uncomplicated. They should _not_ be nearly this difficult to figure out.

He would manage, though, in time. Riku hadn't managed to become second-in-command by not being able to understand a simple Pirate. Ninjas bided their time, lying in wait, until that perfect opportunity to strike. Oh yes, his time would come.


End file.
